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Authority and accountability · Claim record

Russell used measurements of the Great Pyramid as evidence for his chronology, and the figures were altered between editions. On page 342 of the 1891 first edition of Thy Kingdom Come a passage of “3416 inches” yields “A. D. 1874 as marking the beginning of the period of trouble”; on the same page of the 1914 edition the same passage reads “3457 inches” and yields “A. D. 1915”, with “the close of 1914” as the beginning of the trouble.

Claim ID claim-authority-pyramid-edition-changeConcerns 1914Later reinterpretation
Later reinterpretation · 1914 Verified

Russell used measurements of the Great Pyramid as evidence for his chronology, and the figures were altered between editions. On page 342 of the 1891 first edition of Thy Kingdom Come a passage of “3416 inches” yields “A. D. 1874 as marking the beginning of the period of trouble”; on the same page of the 1914 edition the same passage reads “3457 inches” and yields “A. D. 1915”, with “the close of 1914” as the beginning of the trouble. Millennial Dawn, Volume III — Thy Kingdom Come, 1891Studies in the Scriptures, Series III — Thy Kingdom Come (1,385,000 Edition), 1914Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), 1993The Watchtower, 1 January 2000

The organisation’s position or later explanation: Proclaimers (1993) says Russell held the view “for some 35 years” and that “Jehovah's Witnesses have abandoned the idea that an Egyptian pyramid has anything to do with true worship”; The Watchtower of 1 January 2000 recalls that “the length of certain passages in the Great Pyramid was said to indicate the time for the beginning of the ‘great tribulation’”. Neither account mentions that the published measurement itself was changed between editions.

Show the evidence (4 sources)
Primary JW publication Verified

Millennial Dawn, Volume III — Thy Kingdom Come, “The Testimony of God's Stone Witness and Prophet, the Great Pyramid in Egypt”

1891 · p.342 · Charles Taze Russell · Tower Bible and Tract Society / Watch Tower

“we find it to be 3416 inches, symbolizing 3416 years from the above date, B. C. 1542. This calculation shows A. D. 1874 as marking the beginning of the period of trouble; for 1542 years B. C. plus 1874 years A. D. equals 3416 years. Thus the Pyramid witnesses that the close of 1874 was the chronological beginning of the time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation—no, nor ever shall be afterward.”

Russell measures the descending passage of the Great Pyramid from a point he dates to 1542 B.C. and reads the distance to the “Pit” as a date for the beginning of the time of trouble.

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Read in the 1891 first-edition scan; the page header on the same page reads “342 Thy Kingdom Come.” Obvious OCR artefacts repaired; figures checked character by character.

Scan provenance. First edition of June 1891, issued as a special number of Zion’s Watch Tower (the scan’s front matter reads “SPECIAL ISSUE OF ZION’S WATCH TOWER … VOL. XII, JUNE, 1891” and gives the publisher as “TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY, BIBLE HOUSE, ARCH ST., ALLEGHENY, PA.”), scanned on the Internet Archive.

Corroborated by. src-ctr-sits3-1914-p342-pyramid-1914

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-ctr-md3-1891-p342-pyramid-1874

Primary JW publication Verified

Studies in the Scriptures, Series III — Thy Kingdom Come (1,385,000 Edition), “The Testimony of God's Stone Witness and Prophet, the Great Pyramid in Egypt”

1914 · p.342 · Charles Taze Russell · International Bible Students Association

“we find it to be 3457 inches, symbolizing 3457 years from the above date, B. C. 1542. This calculation shows A. D. 1915 as marking the beginning of the period of trouble; for 1542 years B. C. plus 1915 years A. D. equals 3457 years. Thus the Pyramid witnesses that the close of 1914 will be the beginning of the time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation—no, nor ever shall be afterward.”

The same paragraph on the same page of the same chapter as the 1891 first edition, with the pyramid measurement and the resulting date altered.

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Read in the 1914 edition scan (title page: “SERIES III / Thy Kingdom Come / 1,385,000 Edition / International Bible Students Association / … 1914”); the same wording, with the same figures, also appears on page 342 of the 1918 printing (archive.org item studiesinscriptu03russ_0), which was checked as a second witness.

Scan provenance. University of Illinois copy of the 1,385,000 Edition (Brooklyn, 1914), scanned on the Internet Archive.

Corroborated by. src-ctr-md3-1891-p342-pyramid-1874

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-ctr-sits3-1914-p342-pyramid-1914

Primary JW publication Verified

Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), “Chapter 14 — “They Are No Part of the World””

1993 · pp.188-201 · p. 201 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“For some 35 years, Pastor Russell thought that the Great Pyramid of Gizeh was God's stone witness, corroborating Biblical time periods. (Isa. 19:19) But Jehovah's Witnesses have abandoned the idea that an Egyptian pyramid has anything to do with true worship. (See “Watchtower” issues of November 15 and December 1, 1928)”

The organisation's own summary.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Opened on wol.jw.org; wording and page confirmed.

Corroborated by. src-w-1928-1201-altar-in-egypt-pt2

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-jv-1993-ch14-pyramid

Primary JW publication Verified

The Watchtower, “Serving With the Watchman”

1 January 2000 · pp.6-11 · par. 16 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“In 1886 when C. T. Russell published a book that came to be called The Divine Plan of the Ages, this volume contained a chart linking the ages of mankind with the Great Pyramid of Egypt. It was thought that this memorial of Pharaoh Khufu was the pillar referred to at Isaiah 19:19, 20”

Adds that 'the length of certain passages in the Great Pyramid was said to indicate the time for the beginning of the “great tribulation”'.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Opened on wol.jw.org; wording confirmed.

Corroborated by. src-ss3-1891-thy-kingdom-come-pyramid

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-w-2000-0101-serving-watchman-pyramid

Claim page

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-authority-pyramid-edition-change/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.